Free The Phoenix Rising by Richard L. Sanders Page B

of a delay; their destination
was also the last known location of their quarry.
    “ Entering the system in
three,” his pilot counted down, “two, one. We are now in Abia
System.” The window filled with stars and, in the distance, the
light of the local sun could be seen just larger than the
rest.
    “ Ops, what do we see?” he
asked, gazing out the window at the nothingness.
    “ Commencing deep scan,”
replied his ops officer. “Preliminary report, no ship signatures,
however there are some large objects near the planet.”
    “ In orbit?”
    “ Negative, the only thing in
orbit appears to be the station which is powered down and
unresponsive. If anyone is still onboard—they’re dead by
now.”
    “ What are these
objects?”
    “ Looks to be… debris, sir.
Destroyed starships.”
    Nimoux felt his heart rate accelerate but he
remained a disciplined calm. “Helm, bring us in closer; Defense,
keep our stealth system engaged but standby to power weapons and
shields; Ops, let me know once the high-intensity scan is
complete.”
    “ Aye sir.”
    Before leaving Capital World, the Desert
Eagle had been re-fitted with a new type of scanner. It was only a
prototype, but had enormous potential. It increased the strength of
the Desert Eagle’s already state-of-the-art scopes by a factor of
five. Allegedly it could totally negate the best stealth
technology, which was why it had been rush installed onto the
Desert Eagle. The Nighthawk couldn’t hide from them.
    “ Scan complete,” said the
ops officer. “I confirm that there are no other ships in the
system. As for the debris, it looks like destroyed warships. Some
of it is imperial in design, others are alien. Most likely match:
Rotham battleships.”
    “ Rotham?” It made no sense
for foreign warships to be so deep inside Imperial space.
Apparently there had been a battle here—one that Intel Wing and the
Fleet had successfully kept quiet.
    “ Can you identify which
Imperial ships were destroyed?”
    “ No, sir.”
    “ Coming about,” said the
pilot.
    The Desert Eagle maneuvered
closer and Nimoux caught his first glimpse of a giant piece of
debris. The burned out husk rotated eerily in space, the corpse of
a ship that had, probably quite recently, been home to several
hundred souls. Nimoux put his hand over his heart. These were
Imperial citizens who’d paid the ultimate price. Perhaps that long list of missing starships isn’t
so long after all… He wondered how many of
the disappeared ships had made Abia their final resting
place.
    “ Incoming transmission from
Intel Wing,” said the pilot. “Highest priority.”
    “ On speakers.”
    “ IWS Desert Eagle, what is
your status? Please inform.” The voice crackling over their
speakers belonged to Director Jack Edwards, handler for all
phantom-class stealth ships in the Empire. Edwards sounded
somewhat... different , Nimoux couldn’t put his finger on why though.
    “ We have arrived in Abia
System, sir,” said Nimoux. “Commencing sweep
operations.”
    “ Good. Destroy all the
debris you find. Leave no trace that any ships were ever
there.”
    “ Understood,” said Nimoux,
though he thought it a strange order. He knew better than to
question Edwards, though. “Will comply. Also be advised that we
have had no contact with the station and it appears to be
inoperable—possible unmanned.” He hoped to glean some information
about what had happened here, what they were covering
up.
    “ Don’t worry about the
station, or anything else. Conduct sweep operations, then proceed
to Gemini System. A probe dispatched to the region several days ago
positively ID’d jump signatures in Abia that targeted Gemini
System.”
    The fact that Intel Wing wanted Nimoux to
take care of business in Abia before proceeding to Gemini was very
interesting, especially since the longer they waited the colder the
trail would get. “Yes, sir.”
    “ Intel Wing out.”
    “ You heard the man,” said
Nimoux to his bridge